It was a day of asking "why" as America watched the story unfold of a mass murder event Friday at a multiplex movie theatre in a Colorado town.

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A lone suspect, clad in black ballistic gear, walked into a crowded premiere of the new "Batman" movie and opened fire with multiple firearms.

When it was done, 12 people were dead and 59 were wounded.

All Americans are left in the dark wondering what drove a lone young man to such insanity. The fact remains that whatever the motive might be, it likely will not make sense to any of us.

In this case, the gunman's massacre was apparently carefully planned, down to the details of setting sophisticated booby-traps in his apartment.

For the past 50 years, America has seen its share of mass shootings: 16 killed in 1966 at the University of Texas; seven killed in 1976 at the library at California State University; 21 killed in 1984 at a McDonald's in California; 13 killed in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado; and 13 killed in 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas.

This type of human carnage is not unique to America either.

There were 16 people killed in 1987 in Hungerford, England; 16 kindergarten children and their teacher killed in 1996 in Dunblane, Scotland; 12 killed at an oil academy in Baku, Azerbaijan; and 77 killed in 2011 at several locations in Norway.

It is sad that mass murder has become routine in America and around the world. It is most often at the hands of an insane individual and at other times part of a state-sanctioned action -- like Cambodia or Uganda.

There are many questions to be answered in the coming weeks. West central Minnesota and the rest of America mourn with Colorado and grieve for the families who lost loved ones. -- West Central Tribune